This invention relates generally to solar ovens and particularly to portable solar ovens having detachable reflector assemblies.
Although solar ovens utilize a cost-free source of energy and thus offer the potential for significant energy cost savings, a variety of practical problems must be overcome before a particular oven design becomes practical for widespread use. Often, this task is complicated by directly competing concerns. For example, although some provision should be made to orient the oven relative to the sun so as to use best the available incident sunlight, it is desirable to avoid changing the orientation of foodstuffs within the oven during cooking as the oven is positioned to best catch the sun's rays. Similarly, although a compact, easily transportable structure is best suited for applications wherein oven portability is a factor, a solar oven must be of a certain minimum size if it is to play a meaningful role as a useful cooking utensil. Finally, although specific structure can be added to improve performance in various areas, a practical solar oven should be easy to set up and use, and the design and construction should lend itself to easy, thorough cleaning without requiring substantial or time consuming disassembly.
To help achieve widespread user-acceptance, a well designed solar oven should be capable of economical manufacture. Thus, any compromise reached among the various competing design criteria should result not only in acceptable overall oven performance, but economical and practical feasibility as well. Although a variety of solar oven constructions have from time to time been proposed, these prior constructions have typically sought to overcome specific deficiencies of still earlier designs, often at the significant expense of a competing design consideration.
In view of the foregoing, it is a general object of the present invention to provide a new and improved solar oven.
It is a more specific object of the present invention to provide a new and improved solar oven wherein the orientation of the oven relative to the sun can be adjusted without substantially changing the relative orientation of foodstuffs within the oven.
It is a still more specific object of the present invention to provide a new and improved solar oven wherein portability is provided in conjunction with a practical cooking capacity.
It is a still more specific object of the present invention to provide a new and improved solar oven which can be easily and quickly set up for use and taken down for cleaning, transport or storage.